Sudan’s “Peace” Efforts in Darfur

An association of 15 human-rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and the Save Darfur Coalition, released a devastating report today on the Sudanese government’s cynical — and mendacious — PR campaign to convince the international community that it is committed to bringing peace to Darfur.  Here is a snippet of the executive summary:

This report focuses on four dimensions of the crisis in Darfur: continuing insecurity for civilians, the humanitarian situation, justice and accountability and deployment of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). The report highlights the distance between the government of Sudan’s rhetoric and the reality
in each of these areas.

Only in relation to UNAMID has there been any notable progress, and even there the government of Sudan’s commitments have yet to be tested in light of its long history of broken promises. The humanitarian situation and insecurity have deteriorated significantly since Sudan began its bid for a suspension of the ICC’s investigation.

I hope readers will take a look at the entire report.

P.S. I also want to acknowledge and congratulate Human Rights Watch for winning (along with six individuals, including Louise Arbour and the late Benazir Bhutto) the 2008 United Nations Prize for Human Rights.  Conservative commentators can mock HRW all they want — exhibiting precisely the ideological tendentiousness that they erroneously attribute to the non-partisan organization — but there is no question that the world is a better place because of HRW’s tireless efforts.